Dennis M. McGrann
Director of Federal Relations

Practices:

Education:

University of St. Thomas, B.A., M.A., and M.B.A.

Overview

Lockridge Grindal Nauen’s Federal Relations group is led by Dennis McGrann, a Washington veteran, with nearly four decades of federal public policy experience in the nation’s capital. He offers clients unique and valuable expertise in the complex area of federal budget and appropriations processes as well as critical insights into the federal agriculture, energy and environment, health care and infrastructure development policy arenas. He has focused his public advocacy efforts on the intersection of complex policy and political issues involving the Administration, Congress, and the public stakeholder community. Those efforts have resulted in significant success for firm clients and repeatedly led to him being named and regularly recognized among the select best in the Washington DC lobbying arena.

McGrann served in the United States House of Representatives for over a decade in a number of key Congressional policy positions including Committee Staff Director and Chief of Staff to the Vice Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee Health and Environment Subcommittee. He also served in a senior level presidential transition position in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where he was directly responsible for DOE oversight of Congressionally-mandated directives and policy initiatives.

Over the past three decades, McGrann has been engaged in many of the major Congressional regulatory/legislative battles including amending the Clean Air Act, telecommunication industry deregulation, health care reform, energy deregulation, financial market reform and nationwide air and surface transportation reauthorizations. He has been called upon by both Democratic and Republican Administrations to lend his expertise and support to a host of major U.S. Government high priority initiatives. Most recently he served as Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the USDOT/FAA “Center of Excellence.” He also was appointed to the FAA’s Rulemaking Advisory Committee – ARAC, and previously served as an advisor to the agency on international transportation policy negotiations.

McGrann has long been recognized as an effective advocate on behalf of client interests and has regularly received accolades from print and electronic media in those efforts. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives he was regularly featured in the annual publication Almanac of the Unelected as one of the “most influential staff members in Congress.” On the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, he was singled out for his efforts in helping secure $8.6 billion in disaster relief for flood ravaged Midwestern communities and was recognized in the Washington newspaper The Hill for his “role in establishing communication between Congressional Representatives and flood-ravaged areas and local officials.” He was identified in the Journal of Law and Politics as a member of an elite group that is “among Washington insiders and wield considerable influence in Congress…” and the largest newspaper in the Upper Midwest featured him in an article identifying the “most influential lobbyists” in Washington.

McGrann holds BA, MA and MBA degrees from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and has completed studies at the University of Delaware and the University di Sacra Cuore in Milan, Italy. He resides with his family in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood of Washington D.C.